The legend of Lenny Skutnik

The image is in my mind, in the back somewhere. Early in our marriage, I find that my husband has this image firmly in his mind, too, because the Potomac river forms part of the borders between Maryland and Washington, D.C. where he grew up. He knows the story well.

Over the years, I expect to never hear about this amazing feat of heroism again, but no: it surfaces from time to time in unexpected places. It will not die. This man, Lenny Skutnik, represents something we feel that we should be, or know that we are (somewhere inside of us) or hope that we will someday become if the occasion presents itself. Perhaps we are simply frightened that we could fail, if tested. One never really knows until that moment arrives.

And of course Lenny Skutnik. Just before Reagan's 1982 speech Mr. Skutnik, a government worker, saw Air Florida Flight 90 go into the Potomac. As others watched from the banks of the frozen river, Mr. Skutnik threw off his coat, dived in and swam like a golden retriever to save passengers. The night of the speech he was up there in the gallery next to the first lady, and when Reagan pointed him out the chamber exploded. This nice, quiet man who'd gone uncelebrated all his professional life, and then one day circumstances came together and he showed that beneath the bureaucrat's clothing was the beating heart of a hero.

Noonan: The Sleepiness of a Hollow Legend - The State of the Union is a grand tradition—but only if people are listening.

No wonder Santa could fly!

Oh, those crazy scientists: Flying reindeer? Theory calls St. Nick modern counterpart of shaman — on hallucinogenics

Bigfoots love Zagnuts!

Animal Planet will be following Michael Greene, a man from Salisbury, NC who claims he saw Bigfoot in the Uwharrie National Forest two years ago. Greene says he has been tracking Bigfoot across the U.S. and Canada, all the way from the Yukon to the Adirondacks, and finally managed to make contact in the Uwharrie National Forest. Greene reportedly lured the Bigfoot out using a Zagnut candy bar (Bigfoots love Zagnuts) and captured a thermal image of the beast. That was enough of a tease for Animal Planet, apparently, who is now sending out a film crew to document Greene’s attempt to find Bigfoot again.

Bigfoot: New Reality TV Star?

Via China Confidential: Do Giant Apes Roam Forests of China?

KILROY WAS HERE

Posted on a private YahooGroup this week:

Do you remember Kilroy? I, too, have often wondered about Kilroy....now I know. Great piece of history and a bit of a war story too.

Anyone born in the mid thirties knew of Kilroy. We didn't know why, but we had lapel pins with his nose hanging over the label and the top of his face above his nose with his hands hanging over the label too. I believe it was orange colored. No one knew why he was so well known but we all joined in!

KILROY WAS HERE!

In 1946 the American Transit Association, through its radio program, "Speak to America," sponsored a nationwide contest to find the REAL Kilroy, offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person who could prove himself to be the genuine article.

Almost 40 men stepped forward to make that claim, but only James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts had evidence of his identity.

Kilroy was a 46-year old shipyard worker during the war. He worked as a checker at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy.

His job was to go around and check on the number of rivets completed. Riveters were on piecework and got paid by the rivet.

Kilroy would count a block of rivets and put a check mark in semi-waxed lumber chalk, so the rivets wouldn't be counted twice.

When Kilroy went off duty, the riveters would erase the mark.

Later on, an off-shift inspector would come through and count the rivets a second time, resulting in double pay for the riveters.

One day Kilroy's boss called him into his office.

The foreman was upset about all the wages being paid to riveters, and asked him to investigate.

It was then that he realized what had been going on.

The tight spaces he had to crawl in to check the rivets didn't lend themselves to lugging around a paint can and brush, so Kilroy decided to stick with the waxy chalk.

He continued to put his checkmark on each job he inspected, but added KILROY WAS HERE in king-sized letters next to the check, and eventually added the sketch of the chap with the long nose peering over the fence and that became part of the Kilroy message. Once he did that, the riveters stopped trying to wipe away his marks.

Ordinarily the rivets and chalk marks would have been covered up with paint. With war on, however, ships were leaving the Quincy Yard so fast that there wasn't time to paint them.

As a result, Kilroy's inspection "trademark" was seen by thousands of servicemen who boarded the troopships the yard produced.

His message apparently rang a bell with the servicemen, because they picked it up and spread it all over Europe and the South Pacific.

Before the war's end, "Kilroy" had been here, there, and everywhere on the long haul to Berlin and Tokyo.

To the unfortunate troops outbound in those ships, however, he was a complete mystery; all they knew for sure was that some jerk named Kilroy had "been there first."

As a joke, U.S. servicemen began placing the graffiti wherever they landed, claiming it was already there when they arrived.

Kilroy became the U.S. super-GI who had always "already been" wherever GIs went.

It became a challenge to place the logo in the most unlikely places imaginable (it is said to be atop Mt. Everest, the Statue of Liberty, the underside of the Arch De Triumph, and even scrawled in the dust on the moon.)

And as the war went on, the legend grew.

Underwater demolition teams routinely sneaked ashore on Japanese-held islands in the Pacific to map the terrain for the coming invasions by U.S. troops (and thus, presumably, were the first GI's there).

On one occasion, however, they reported seeing enemy troops painting over the Kilroy logo!

In 1945, an outhouse was built for the exclusive use of Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill at the Potsdam conference.

The first person inside was Stalin, who emerged and asked his aide (in Russian), "Who is Kilroy?"

To help prove his authenticity in 1946, James Kilroy brought along officials from the shipyard and some of the riveters.

He won the trolley car, which he gave to his nine children as a Christmas gift and set it up as a playhouse in the Kilroy front yard in Halifax, Massachusetts.